Friction device for locomotives



(No Model.)

N. S. SEALER.

FRICTION DEVICE FOR LOCOMOTIVES.

No. 313,959. Patented Mar. 17,1885.

Wii E 5 5 E: 5 II /EI HJY 1 5 {M W a 6mg x 7 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER, OF CAMBRIDGE, ASSIGNOR TO THEODORE A. DODGE, TRUSTEE, OF BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS.

FRICTION DEVICE FOR LOCOMOTIVES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 313,959, dated March 17, 1885.

Application filed April 4, 1884. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, NATHANIEL S. SEALER, of Cambridge, county of Middlesex, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Friction Devices for Locomotives, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawing, is a specification, like letters on the drawing representing like parts.

My invent-ion relates to a device for increasing the friction orholding power between the driving-wheels of locomotives and the rails.

The usual method of applying sand discharged on the rail through pipes leading from 1 a sand-box on the locomotive is objectionable on account of the unequal distribution of the sand or gritty friction-producing material, which is frequently accumulated in considerable quantities, and thus tends to retard the wheels without producing the best effect for increasing the friction. It is essential for the best effect that a thin layer of gritty or friction-producing material should be interposed between the wheels and rails, sothat the particles of gritty material embed themselves in both opposed metallic surfaces, thereby binding, as it were, the said surfaces together or increasing the frictional or holding power between them.

0 My invention has for its object to insure the distribution of the gritty or friction-producing material in a thin layer between the wheel and rail, andin order to secure such effect the particles of gritty material are applied to the opposite sides of a flexible band or strip'of paper or other material capable of holding them, the said strip being fed to the point of contact;between .ihe wheel and rail when it is necessary to increase the friction or 40 holding power between them.

The drawing shows in side elevation a portion ot'a locomotive provided with a frictionincreasing device embodying this invention. The gritty or friction-producing material, which may be flint or sand, but which is preferably a harder materialsuch as magnetic iron-ore, emery, or corundum-is cemented or otherwise applied to one or both surfaces of a flexible band or strip, a, which may be of paper or other suitable flexible material, it serving as a basis or support for a thin even layer of such gritty material. The band a is preferably rolled into a coil ona reel, 7), which may be supported on the locomotive-body at any convenient point, and may be inclosed in a suitable case, if necessary. A tube, d, may be employed to guide the band from the reel to the point where it is to be delivered on the track at the front of the wheel, and the axle of the reel will be provided with actuat- 6o ing mechanism operated from the cab, the said mechanism being shown as consisting of belts e c, operated by a pulley, f, provided with a suitable handle. The engineer or attendant is thus enabled. to cause the strip ato 6 5 feed downward through the tube d until it reaches the track and is caught between the track and the wheel, when it will be drawn off in proportion as the wheel advancesuntil the coil is wholly exhausted, or is severed by a suitable device, or is broken by checking the movement of thereel. The strip may be weakened from point to point-as by a transverse line of perforations-to cause it to break more readily when its feeding movement is checked 7 by stopping the pulleyf. Then one coil of the band of frictional material is exhausted, another one may be substituted.

I claim- 1. In a friction device for locomotives, a flexible strip or band provided with gritty or friction-producing material, combined with mechanism for feeding the same between the track and the treads of the wheels, substantially as described.

2. In a friction device for locomotives, a coiled flexible band provided with gritty or friction producing material, combined with a guide-tube for the said band leading from the coilto the track near the contact-point of c the wheels, substantially as described.

3. The flexible band provided with gritty or f riction-producing material, combined with a reel for the said band when coiled,and actuating mechanism for the said reel, to operate 5 substantially as described.

In testimony whereofI have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

"NATHANIEL sourncrm SHALER. Witnesses:

G. W. GREGORY, W. H. SIes'roN. 

